Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 81
Harley’s Holiday
Another epic episode, one of the best. Harley Quinn is declared sane and set free but on her first day out she gets into a little trouble and freaks out. In the process Bruce Wayne’s “casual girlfriend” Veronica Vreeland, gets kidnapped by Harley.
Harley is just trying to get out of town and not commit any crimes. Unfortunately no one gave her the social skills on how to dig out of trouble. So she’s declared sane but no real oversight was presented on how to integrate her back into society. It’s as if Arkham Asylum never freed a patient before. She wasn’t remanded to anyone’s custody, she wasn’t placed in a group home. She was just set free and shocker, everything goes wrong.
In the process of trying to get out of town before things get worse she manages to get a diverse group of individuals hot on her trail. Her pursuers are Batman and Robin, Detective Harvey Bullock, gangster Boxy Bennett, and General Vreeland (Veronica’s father) IN A TANK! During the adventure Veronica Vreeland realizes Harley didn’t mean for all these things to go wrong, she just made a few mistakes. Vreeland promises to not press charges if Harley can get her out of the situation safely. Then Veronica’s father shows up in a tank shooting at the car.
Plot wise, the tank itself isn’t the problem but he’s shooting at the car holding his daughter. What does he expect would happen? If he hits the car, his daughter dies. Also, Veronica’s dad is a general and she’s a rich Gotham City socialite. She clearly didn’t marry into money since she occasionally hooks up with Bruce Wayne. She calls him out for being a player and dumping her in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. US General’s as of 2023 make about anywhere between $90k - $530k a year. The average is around $230k. Even if he made $530k a year, which is doubtful, that’s not “socialite who can roll with Boy Billionaire Bruce Wayne” kind of money. Where did the Vreeland’s get their money? Is General Vreeland smuggling arms for extra cash? The DCAU does have some shady military commanders we’ll meet years later but General Vreeland is only seen in this episode. It’s likely his career was completely “tanked” after this incident. He may have inherited his wealth from old money and was just a patriot who enlisted and worked his way up the ranks. Lots of unanswered questions about his character and the Vreeland’s in general.
So all the pursuers converge on Harley all at once but she’s able to escape and Veronica is released to Batman unharmed. Batman captures Harley after a climactic fight and she’s returned to Arkham. Batman shows compassion to Harley and understands why things got out of hand. As a thank you Harley gives Batman a passionate kiss to the shock of everyone.
This episode has drama, suspense, action, comedy and pulls it all off perfectly. Harley Quinn proves how entertaining of a character she is and you find yourself rooting for her. It’s an episode where you really want to see her pull it off and escape but Batman can’t let that happen. He’s almost the villain in the story but his motivations are altruistic. He doesn’t want her to get into deeper trouble and wants to keep her and anyone else in her path from getting hurt. Truly a can’t miss episode.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com
